


(Hiatus, being rewritten) Protect Them with Your Bloodied Wings

by Foxfire_and_Midnight_Wings



Series: You Only Live Once (Right?) [1]
Category: Marble Hornets
Genre: Alternate Universe - Time Travel, Anxious Jay, Blood, Blood and Gore, Blood and Violence, Everyone Has Issues, Everyone Needs A Hug, Fix-It, Fluff and Angst, Gen, Gunshot Wounds, Hurt/Comfort, Jay Merrick Needs a Hug, Mythology References, Original Mythology, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Poor First Aid, Rebirth, Secrets, Time Travel, Time Travel Fix-It, angel jay, angel jay merrick, animalistic features, anxious jay merrick, bird jay, bird jay merrick, depressed jay, depressed jay merrick, jay is bad at keeping secrets, winged jay, winged jay merrick
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-03-26
Updated: 2020-05-16
Packaged: 2021-02-28 21:53:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,829
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23324266
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Foxfire_and_Midnight_Wings/pseuds/Foxfire_and_Midnight_Wings
Summary: There was blood...Oh, God, there was too much blood!It slowly covered his hands and everywhere he looked. Static was starting to slowly filter through his head, and he distantly realized he should probably be more worried about that than he actually was. 'I regret doing this, so, so much. God, I dragged them all back into this. If any more of them die, it'll be my fault... No, please! If anyone is listening, save the others. Tim, Jessica if she's still alive, anyone else I may have accidentally involved... please... help them...' Jay's thoughts slowed to a stop, the static becoming unbearable. All he could do was feel as his body started shutting down. His limbs slowly started to feel less like his own as a strange buzzing rang throughout his body.......Luckily, there was someone listening to his prayer.Well, it was more like a group of people that heard him, and they decided to help.......Jay opened his eyes and gasped for breath.
Relationships: Alex Kralie & Brian Thomas, Alex Kralie & Jay Merrick, Alex Kralie & Jay Merrick & Brian Thomas & Timothy "Tim" Wright, Alex Kralie & Timothy "Tim" Wright, Brian & Skully (Marble Hornets), Brian & Timothy "Tim" W., Hoody & Masky, Hoody & Masky & Skully (Marble Hornets), Hoody & Masky (Marble Hornets), Hoody & Skully (Marble Hornets), Hoody & Timothy "Tim" Wright, Jay & Alex Kralie, Jay & Timothy "Tim" W., Jay Merrick & Brian Thomas, Jay Merrick & Everyone, Masky & Skully (Marble Hornets), Skully (Marble Hornets) & Timothy "Tim" Wright
Series: You Only Live Once (Right?) [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1677361
Comments: 11
Kudos: 44





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [I've Had My Adventure (I Don't Need Something New)](https://archiveofourown.org/works/21651310) by [Tired_And_Uninspired](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tired_And_Uninspired/pseuds/Tired_And_Uninspired). 



> Overall warnings that will say consistent:  
> Blood and Gore  
> Gunshot wounds  
> Flashbacks to graphic scenes  
> Paranoia  
> Anxious and depressive thoughts  
> Poor/untrained first-aid (mainly by Jay)
> 
> Chapters will have more specific warnings, if you need something tagged let me know!
> 
> Ao3 Tumblr (Updates, answering questions, etc.) - @foxfire-and-midnight-wings

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Trigger Warnings: major character death, guns, gunshot wound, mythological/supernatural/religious themes
> 
> Please continue with caution!

Distantly, Jay could hear the echoing noise of the gunshot, even though he knew it was long gone. He watched as his camera screen shook and was facing just barely high enough so where you couldn't see where he was shot. He coughed, the metallic tang of blood starting to fill his throat.

There was blood. Oh God, there was too much blood! It was soaking his hand and was starting to cover everywhere he looked. Static started to slowly filter through his head, and he distantly realized he should probably be more worried about that than he actually was. But now wasn't the time, he was lying on the floor bleeding out, and there was no way he could try and stop it. 'God, I regret doing this. I regret doing this so, so much. God, I dragged them all back into this, and if any more of them die, it'll be my fault... No, please! If anyone is listening, save the others. Let them be able to live their lives without worrying about this anymore... Tim, Jessica if she's still alive, and anyone else I may have accidentally gotten involved. Please, help them... and let Tim know I'm sorry...' Jay's thoughts slowed, the static becoming unbearable.

The looming form of The Operator came into view, standing in the corner. In the distance, he thought he could hear sounds of a fight. Maybe that was yelling, but it was too distorted to know. His vision started to black out, the image of The Operator practically burned into his mind. His head fell limp to the floor, eyes slipping closed and breath starting to shallow. He couldn't move anymore, all he could do was feel the cold concrete ground and his heartbeat start to slow as his body started shutting down. His limbs slowly started to feel less like his own as a strange buzzing rang throughout his body. 'Tim... Jessica... Seth... Everyone else who died... God, I'm so sorry, everyone'.

* * *

The darkness consumed him and the buzzing stopped.

* * *

Luckily, there was someone who was listening to his prayer. Well, to say it more accurately, there were multiple people listening. They were silently watching as he bled out and prayed to any being who heard him to save his friends. Some stared in horror at what they were seeing, others were too shocked to do anything else besides sand there. No, this wasn't right, this wasn't supposed to happen. One of their own, shot down by a mortal who had been destroyed from the inside out by a demon, was lying there dying alone. He wasn't supposed to die yet, this they knew. After all, he was technically one of their own.

His mother, who was away with the other leaders, was one of the most powerful Seraphim. His father, a mere mortal. But they loved each other greatly and their son had been blessed with a bright soul and a passion to support others. Yet here he was dying, after trying to help a childhood friend who had been possessed and tormented, the light within him desperately fighting to stay alive. No, this wasn't supposed to be happening.

"We must do something, we can't let him die like this!" One of the lower Angels spoke up. This caused more of the crowded creatures to start moving, desperately trying to find a way to help him.

"Well, what are we supposed to do? We can't manifest in the mortal realm, and we can't help him now. Look! He's too far gone, that beast of a demon is going to try taking him out. What can we do?" A nearby Sphinx spoke up, tail swishing side-to-side anxiously. A couple others around them nodded, feathers ruffling and ears twitching as they shifted around uncomfortably. All of them knew they needed to try to help, if nothing else, just to make his mother feel better. But, as the Sphinx pointed out, what could they do?

Suddenly, a Phoenix flew up and trilled, "I know! I know! I know how we can still help." They flew down past the others, and rushed over to Jay's body. "His soul! That's it, his soul! His mother is a Seraph, another being with wings like my own. If I give him a blessing with my soul, he can be reborn. I can help him live again and help the ones he loved!" Others started to jump down quickly after the bird, cries of joy ringing through the air.

"Brilliant!" They cried, "Save him, save his soul!"

All different types of creatures were jumping down now, excitement rippling through the crowd. "He's one of the only people we have down there who can help the humans and other creatures down there! He must live, so he can help save others who need him," A Pegasus called out, wings flapping madly. The Phoenix landed by Jay's body, wings flaring up defensively as they faced the demon in the corner. The demon looked on, as more and more creatures gathered around Jay's body, and eventually knew he was outmatched. Darkness consumed him as he left the room, and the Phoenix turned back towards Jay. His body was shut down, but his soul was still weakly burning. The last few embers of his soul were attempting still to survive.

The other creatures started to quite down, anticipation filling the room with tension. The Phoenix leaned down and covered his body with his wings. A glow surrounded them both as the Phoenix gave him their gift. The Phoenix's blessing: the gift of rebirth and life. The crowed watched as Jay's soul shifted and changed, the blessing affecting him differently than if would a normal human. "Wait... he is not fully human. How do we know what the exact outcome will be?" The Sphinx spoke up again, eyes widening as they glanced around. This caused all of the creatures present to freeze, realization dawning upon them.

"Something is going to change... and we won't be able to decide how it changes," The Phoenix spoke up, using their wings to cradle Jay's soul.

"Surely you must have thought of this? What do you think will happen?" Someone called out from the crowd. The Phoenix nodded again, and looked up towards the Sphinx.

"I believe, because his mother is a Seraph and I am a Phoenix, it may result in gaining some form of wings. I do not know if this will truly happen, and if it does I have no way of predicting how many or what kind." They paused, looking back down towards Jay's soul. "I do not worry, though, about the result. His soul may be changed from my blessing, but he will adapt to it well. I have faith he will use the changes for good." This seemed enough to satisfy the Sphinx, and the crowd of creatures watched as the world around them started to shift and change.

* * *

...

...

Jay opened his eyes and gasped for breath.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ideas/prompts Tumblr (ideas for future stories/au ideas/headcannons) - @marble-hornets-fanfic-prompts
> 
> Ao3 Tumblr (updates, answering questions, etc.) - @foxfire-and-midnight-wings
> 
> Hope you enjoyed!
> 
> \---
> 
> 14 5 24 20 0 3 8 1 16 20 5 18:  
> 10 1 25 0 13 5 18 18 9 3 11 0 8 1 19 0 1 0 16 1 14 9 3 0 1 20 20 1 3 11 0 1 14 4 0 18 5 20 8 9 14 11 19 0 8 9 19 0 12 9 6 5 0 3 8 15 9 3 5 19


	2. Haunted by Ghosts From the Future

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Where do you go  
> When you dream of a future  
> That only you know?
> 
> What do you do  
> When you watched them all die  
> And have a chance to start anew?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Trigger Warnings: Panic attacks, blood, gunshot wound, poor first aid, self-deprecating thoughts/self-blame, anxious/intrusive thoughts, past character death (mention), brief/minor flashback, questioning reality
> 
> Please continue with caution!

Jay took a moment to catch his breath, still not fully processing where he was. Just a moment ago he was lying on the concrete floor, surrounded by his own blood, bleeding out. Alex had been saying something, right? Wait, no, the door was shut behind him… was he saying something through the door? And The Operator… yeah, he had seen him in the corner. The static had become unbearable, and he had been waiting for the darkness to take away the pain. And now he was… wait a minute, where was he?

Jay slowly sat up to observe his surroundings, body stiff and aching. After a moment, his eyes widened in disbelief. This was his old room, wasn’t it? But-but that’s impossible! His apartment burned down years ago, along with everything in it. Somehow, everything was here, but none of it should be. He noticed he was lying on his bed, his covers damp with sweat, with his phone charging on a stand nearby. Maybe it was some kind of dream? No, he remembered the feelings he had felt very clear, and all the pain he had gone through, there’s no way it could’ve been a dream.

 ~~Or was it some form of purgatory? Maybe he really did die and this was just another one of the monster’s games.~~ ~~Was everything else just a dream?~~

No, he remembered everything that he could fairly clearly. He would’ve woken up from the pain if it was a dream.

~~But does he actually remember? How many times has he thought he remembered something but he really didn’t?~~

He was _fine_. He was alive, apparently in his apartment that somehow was burnt to the ground, and he could figure out where to go from here. It would be fine. 

~~Was everything he thought that happened, every single death and burst of pain, every overwhelming feeling of anger or fear, was none of it real? Or was he going to be stuck here, in some form of hell that monster created? Did everyone he thought he knew actually exist, or were they something his mind made up?~~

He _remembered_ what happened. He remembered _them._ Every death he watched helplessly, every moment Tim had to pull him away from his computer to try finding out what ToTheArk was saying. He knew what happened to himself, even if his memory was a little spotty. But he remembered! ~~Or are all his memories fake?~~ He remembered the moments with Tim, Alex, and Jessica. Sure, he lost large portions of time, and his memory did seem to be tampered with more times than he could count, but he was _fine._ He remembered the pain of getting shot, that had to count for something, right?

 ~~What if he was bleeding out right now, alone with no one to be there with him? What if Tim was caught by that thing and was dying too? The shout of his name rang in his ears, the echo of a gun rang out. Static was filling his vision. He couldn’t see, couldn’t breathe. He was back there with the cold concrete and burning blood. That thing was in the corner, the nightmare he had dealt with the last couple years. The static was ringing, it hurt, it hurt, it-~~ ~~~~

Jay was jerked back into the present by a shrill beeping noise. It took him another minute of blinking dumbly around him to realize the room he was in was not at the abandoned school, and the reason he had woken up was that his alarm was going off. He must have hit snooze when he first woke up without realizing it. Reaching over to shut it off, a sharp pain ripped through his side causing him to gasp. After struggling to turn his alarm off, he turned his head to look down while also trying not to aggravate whatever was causing him pain. ~~You deserve the pain, you deserve it to make up for what you put everyone else through~~ ~~.~~ Jay grit his teeth as he pushed the rest of his thoughts from his mind, he had no time to focus on the past, he needed to find out what was hurting him.

Luckily, he didn’t have to turn his head too much to see what the problem was. Now that he was processing his surroundings more, his bed felt unusually damp. Sure, it could’ve been from his sweat, but… it was also really warm… and really dark. Wait, no, oh god. His bed wasn’t damp from sweat, it was being soaked in his blood.

All his previous doubts about if he was really dreaming or not were tossed out of the window. Oh god. That was _blood_ oozing onto his bed that was coming from _him_ . A stream of curses left his mouth as he started to panic. ‘Is the gunshot wound still there?! Shit, do something!’ his mind screamed at him as he scrambled out of bed and into his bathroom. He ripped open the bathroom cabinets and threw some of his toiletries and medicine to the side in a desperate attempt to reach the gauze wrap faster. Pulling out all the rolls he had, along with the disinfectant, he stumbled over and sat on the edge of his bathtub. He set down his supplies in front of him and turned his attention back to the _literal hole in his chest_.

Gripping the tub with one hand and his shirt in another, Jay pried off his shirt to see the bullet wound. It was not pretty, to say the least, and just the overwhelming smell of _blood_ made him nauseous. It was overwhelming, he could practically taste the metallic tang in his mouth. He grabbed one of the rolls of gauze and brought it up so it sat next to him. ‘Wait… I probably should wash the blood off first’ he paused, ‘Jeez, couldn’t have thought of that sooner?’ Carefully standing up, Jay went back over to his cabinets to try finding a towel to use.

After successfully grabbing one where the staining from the blood wouldn't be too obvious, he sat back down on the tub and turned the water on. Setting it slightly warmer than it probably should be, he carefully put the cloth under the water and started to work on getting rid of the blood farthest from where he was shot. His hands were shaking, probably from the adrenaline, making everything a little more difficult. Some of it had dried and was flaking off, while other sections were still wet. He started up at his chest, hoping that the blood wasn’t going to run down and stain his pants. It took less than a minute for the blood above to be wiped off, so he slowly started to wipe closer around the edges where the blood was pooling out from.

While he was able to clean up the areas above and to the sides of the hole, the blood running down his body was too much to be able to be stopped. Pressing the blood soaked towel against his wound with one hand, he used the other to start unrolling the gauze. He took a couple minutes to successfully maneuver his body so he was holding one end of the gauze in his mouth, the towel was still pressed against the bullet hole, and he was able to use his other hand to start wrapping the area where his wound was. Starting a couple inches above the wound, he started to wrap around his torso and work his way down.

It took a minute, but the farther along he got, the slower it seemed the blood was flowing. When he finally reached where the towel was, the blood had almost slowed to a stop. Jay winced as he slowly peeled the towel away from where it was sticking to his skin. After taking a moment to attempt and wipe up some of the drying blood lower on his stomach, he tossed the towel into the tub and continued to wrap his chest. Now with both hands free, he was able to work quicker and was able to finish wrapping his chest (and half of his stomach) in only a couple more minutes.

Once he got finished, he took both ends of the gauze into his hands and tied them together into a knot. He tested it a few times by tugging at the knot, trying to make sure it wouldn’t unwind randomly while he was moving. After he deemed it good enough, he reached behind him, grabbed the blood-soaked towel, walked over to his sink, and attempted to wash the blood off of his hands and towel.

Sadly, while his hands were fairly easy to clean, the towel was severely stained and he ended up just leaving it to soak in some water in the sink. Taking a moment to breathe and recollect himself, while desperately attempting to ignore the fact that he just wrapped up a bullet hole wound, and turned to face the current mess that was the bathroom. It… wasn’t as bad as it could’ve been, but it was still a mess. Bloody hand-prints and drops of blood littered the area he had been through. Luckily for him, the only bloody hand-prints were on the counter, cabinet, the ground, and the bathtub. The drops of blood, on the other hand, trailed all the way from his bed to the sink and tub, some puddles had formed and were larger than others in the areas he spent longer in… basically, the area around his bathtub was smeared with a lot of blood.

Wait, now that he was thinking about it, why was there so much blood? Surely he would’ve passed out, or at least felt some affect, from having lost this much blood. ‘No, wait, that can be addressed later. I need to clean all this up, and _now_. I haven’t been able to see the date yet, so I have no idea if someone is planning to come over today or not. I guess I’ll just, I don’t know, be rolling with the idea I might be back in time before the whole deal with Alex and Tim.’ Jay reached toward another towel and started on cleaning the bathroom. ‘I need to figure out where I am, when I am, and how the hell I got here. Considering I don’t think I saw a camera in my room, it must be some time before I got really invested in the Marble Hornets channel. I could always check Twitter, but that might not give me any answers if I don’t even have an account set up yet. My phone, it should have the date, right?’ Jay’s thoughts paused for a moment as he turned back around and rinsed off the blood from the towel. After getting as much as he could out, all while avoiding the towel still soaking, he let his mind wander as he crouched down to start attempting to mop up the blood, ‘I can probably use that after I turn it on, but I probably shouldn’t let anyone else know what’s going on.’ 

This last thought caused Jay to huff out a short laugh, ‘Yeah, no, they’d probably think I’m crazy or something. Well, I mean, the bullet hole might be good evidence, but there’s nothing to prove I wasn’t the one who shot myself. Then again, who’s also to say I’m not going crazy…’ Jay frowned, ‘I know I needed help back then, hell, I tried to call Tim! I agreed that whatever was happening was going to get worse if I didn’t get help, that much was obvious. God, thinking back I _probably_ shouldn’t have assumed he was going to be in his masked state. The knife and zip ties were a bad idea, he definitely proved that to me. Maybe… god, this is going to be hard. I’ll need to try getting an appointment with Tim’s doctor, maybe someone closer if I can find them, and I’ll need to try getting on the same medication soon. But what if it was all just-! No, no, we are not going there. We have the bullet hole to prove it, even if no one believes us. We probably shouldn’t let anyone know that we have it though. Sure, knowing how we got it is important, but the bleeding was slowing down. There’s been no negative side effects yet, so until then no one has to know.’

After rinsing the towel again and getting back onto the floor, Jay froze. ‘Wait, when did I start going into a mindset of ‘we’? That… probably isn’t a good sign. Yeah, no, after this I’m calling Tim’s doctor immediately. If I end up somehow getting a state similar to him, and possibly whoever the hooded man is, that’ll make all of this a lot harder.’ Jay shook his head and focused on cleaning the floor as best he could.

It took another hour to get the rest of the bathroom looking decent again, as long as you ignored the one or two bloody hand-prints smeared on the wall. His back, legs, and knees hurt from how long he was cleaning, so he decided he’d just try tossing off his current clothes and collapsing onto his bed. Well, he was going to, until he walked back into his room and remembered his bed was _also_ covered in blood. He groaned as he grabbed the bloodied sheets and comforter, and tossed them into a pile on the floor. Reaching over to his night stand, Jay grabbed his phone and did a quick search to figure out how he should try getting the blood out of the different fabrics. He ignored any notifications he had gotten and was refusing to look at anything else besides google for the time being.

Sadly, Google did not give a good response. Turns out, the best way to make sure the blood came out was to wash it as soon as possible in warm water with stain remover. Of course, this was easier said than done considering most people don’t wake up to a bed covered in blood because of a bullet wound. ‘Let’s just get this over with,’ Jay mentally groaned as he tried his best to follow the instructions Google gave.

Once everything had been tossed in the washer, accompanied by an unhealthy amount of soap and stain remover, Jay trudged back to his room, changed out of his blood-soaked clothes, and flopped face-down onto his mattress. Somehow, and he thanked whatever creature or being brought him back, the blood that covered his sheets and comforter didn’t get onto his mattress. It didn’t make sense, and defied all laws of logic and reason, but it was the silver lining of his current situation. Shutting his eyes, Jay quickly fell back asleep, still hoping that what was currently happening was a genuine second chance ~~and not a dream .~~

* * *

For the second time that morning, Jay woke up in a panic. Not because he was bleeding out into his bed anymore, but because he could feel _something_ touching his back and legs. As he jolted up in his bed, he felt whatever was on his back fling out and shift his weight, causing him to tumble into the ground. “Shit!” Jay yelped, the bandages around his torso pressing into his wound and causing a spike of pain to shoot through him. He grunted as he twisted his body around to try seeing whatever was messing with him, and scrambled up off his floor.

Still panicking, but starting to calm down once he realized no one else was there, Jay quickly made his way into his living room. He couldn’t feel anything brushing his back or legs anymore, so he decided to come back to _whatever_ that was later. Now that he was more aware of his surroundings, it was really starting to set in that he had somehow gone back and was in his old apartment, which _shouldn’t be possible_ because it burned down almost _four years ago._ “Okay. Okay, this is fine. Let’s just try finding something with the date on it. Panic later, figure out what the hell is going on first,” Jay muttered to himself. A quick scan of the living room and kitchen showed that the only helpful thing he could see was the time on his microwave. Heading back towards his room to grab his phone, he unplugged it, grabbed some paper and a pencil, and made his way to sit on his couch.

As Jay sat down he laid out everything he had grabbed onto his coffee table. His couch was facing the TV, the coffee table stationed in between the two. He internally debated on turning on the news, but decided that it would probably make him panic more than he already was. He leaned forward and rested his arms against his legs while holding his phone in a death grip with both hands. Taking a few deep breaths, Jay turned his phone on and waited for the date to finally show up. It took a couple minutes to fully turn on, but when it did, he almost dropped it because of what it said.

Jay was frozen, dread spreading through his body like a visceral poison. His phone showed the date being March 28, 2006. That… was a lot farther back than what he anticipated. He could already feel his heart rate picking back up, his hands now shaking even more than before. ‘Deep breaths, come on. It’ll be okay,’ He attempted to convince himself, ‘You dealt with some kind of demon fucking up your life for the past couple years and made it out relatively okay. You’ll be fine.’ Jay sighed, he hadn’t even been here for an hour and he almost had a panic attack twice. Putting his phone back on the table, he reached for the pencil and paper he had laid out.

Scribbling out a quick “What the Fuck is Going On” at the top of his page, he started writing down a few bullet points of what he knew. If he did encounter The Operator, he would probably start to struggle with his memory again. Last time, though, he didn’t realize he had lost his memory until seeing it either on the tapes, or seeing the date on something. He needed to make sure he didn’t forget what happened or what his goal was, otherwise he would fail and the others would suffer because of his mistakes. That means notes of what happened and possibly where to go from here. “Okay, think. First and foremost, find out when and where we are. Well, already got that done. What next? Uh, Let’s see...” Jay continued to quietly mutter to himself, trying to fill the silence of the apartment. In the end, his list was pretty bare of facts and was more speculation and planning.

* * *

What the Fuck is Going On?

  * At my old apartment, somehow not burned down and everything seems fine


  * Today is March 28th, 2006


  * Marble Hornets has not had it’s auditions yet or started production 
    * Note: Auditions are in a couple days!! Figure everything out before then!!
    * No reference tapes or videos, YouTube channel is not up and the people who were helping won’t have any idea what is happening


  * Alex hasn’t been exposed to The Operator (?)


  * No one probably remembers me, so the only people who have previous relations to me are Alex and Seth 
    * Does anyone else remember? Am I the only one?


  * I was shot and died (?) in the future, woke up back in time 
    * Different timelines? Or the same timeline but reversed? Are there multiple timelines??
    * I have the bullet hole to prove I was shot and went through everything from the future, most likely everything really happened 
      * Bullet hole still is bleeding, still hurts, hard to breathe
      * Doesn’t seem to make me dizzy with blood loss? But doesn’t seem to be stopping anytime soon. Result of time travel?
      * Maybe some kind of fucked up ‘reminder’ to not repeat what I did, reason it is still there is unknown.
      * _~~Is my body still the same as when I left or was it reverted back to how I was before everything? The bullet hole makes me think it’s the same and I feel pretty tired, but I don’t feel sick or have any bruises/marks left from the last couple days.~~_
    * Aware of future events (to an extent), maybe help prevent others deaths
    * When dying, asked for a chance to help my friends and something answered, assuming this is the ‘chance’ or whatever it is. 
      * ~~Does this mean there are actually other spirits? Does this make The Operator a demon?~~
    * Most likely not purgatory or hell, can’t rule this out until talking with Alex and the others (if they are here)
  * Assuming this is real and the same timeline, the hooded man and ToTheArk’s channel most likely isn’t active yet, only saw them after I got involved 
    * Note: When did they get active? What caused them to get involved? Find out possible motives and IDs
    * Look for a possible hoodie that looks like the one hooded man wore. Tim wore his jacket, hooded man may wear the same hood sometime before he got involved 
      * Maybe someone involved with the film?
    * Don’t know who ToTheArk is, have no reference for them, and as other people pointed out the videos had different styles. Maybe they could help if I find them? 
      * ~~Are they a group? Who would be involved, if so? How did they get involved with the channel to begin with? They had an idea of what was going on, maybe someone also working on the film? But then, who could be part of it?~~


  * The Operator is most likely still around Tim 
    * Get Pills? May help with symptoms like he said 
      * Asking out right may not be a good idea, maybe go back to the doctor’s office and ask for his doctor? Find cover story, describe similar symptoms to Tim, hopefully get the right pills
      * Make sure to note if they seem to start to disappear, could be warning signs about the others stealing them, maybe hide them in areas others wouldn’t look for emergencies
    * Be wary of: 
      * Cold spots
      * Distorted vision
      * Distorted camera screen
      * Static (seeing, hearing, in head, etc.)
      * Cough
      * Strange behavior (Alex and Brian) 
        * Violent outbursts
        * Avoidance, excuses, not showing up when needed, etc.
      * Blacking out
      * Forgotten memory
      * Hallucinations (?)
      * Stolen/missing pills
    * May be able to see The Operator still because I was involved previously, be careful of being alone with Tim or Alex
    * Seemed to hang out in/near Rosswood park and the abandoned hospital, maybe go alone first to see if anything happens 
      * Run if you see him or experience any of the above symptoms
      * Don’t bring anyone else with you, don’t drag them into this mess if possible


  * Any acts I make will change the future, and will soon be unpredictable 
    * This is assuming that there are certain events not set in stone/always going to happen


  * Relations with others/involvement with others 
    * Avoid Jessica, get in contact with Amy to make sure she is safe 
      * Have Amy call or text if any strange behavior starts up, but she may not know. If Alex starts acting strange have her hide and not tell him where she is. She looked to be okay in the tapes, but went missing after me and Alex started working together. May have been caught by The Operator and died similar to Seth
    * Tim is already involved, but may be getting better still. Try to watch him, going to be involved no matter what
    * Seth may be able to be saved, had no previous contact with Sarah so she may have been attacked too 
      * Make sure to get them as far away from this situation as possible, prevent as many one-on-one interactions with Tim/Alex, and try to keep them safe
      * Prevent Seth and Sarah from being involved as much as possible
    * Keep in contact with Brian no matter what. If he tries to distance himself or drops contact, most likely was attacked. 
      * Maybe try finding him, visiting his house, etc. Don’t let him be alone if this happens, last time he was attacked. (It looked like he might’ve been attacked by The Operator at the hospital, but his house was clearly lived in. There was a struggle, blood in the sink, Alex most likely attacked him. Most likely didn’t die from the first attack/attempt at the hospital
      * Watch for strange behavior. Alex mentioned in one tape that we were filming at Brian’s house while he wasn’t there, and that he made some poor excuse. Possible sign of something happening, but I can’t remember when that was shot. It could be before or after the first attack
    * Don’t get anyone else involved. Don’t let them know what’s going on. If they pressure, don’t give in. If they get involved, they have a higher chance of being attacked or killed. Them not knowing would be the safest option
    * Stay in contact with everyone, don’t let anyone be unresponsive for more than a week or two. Extremely bad sign, especially if Alex starts acting strange.


  * DON’T DIE
    * ~~If I die will I be sent back in time again? What caused that in the first place, why me of all people? What’s going on?~~
    * ~~I was shot last time, and still have the bullet hole. Do death causes or injuries carry over?~~ ████████████████


  * ████████████████████████


  * ███████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████


  * ████████████████████████████████


  * ███████████████████████████████████████████████████████


  * ███████████████



* * *

Jay looked over his list once he finished, and when he got to the bottom he froze. No. No, that shouldn’t be there. Strings of incoherent words were filling the last few lines of the page. Writing that he knew that no one should see. Short phrases, notes, and accusations, nonsense like the videos from ToTheArk. He didn’t remember writing that. His mind quickly started to spiral into panic, his only thoughts were screaming at him to get rid of what was written. His paranoia and anxiety spiked, his thoughts continuing to race faster and faster. He couldn't let anyone see this. He needed to hide what he wrote. But how? There was too much to erase and the marks could still possibly be read but he had to _get rid of it, hide it, don’t let them see. Bad, very bad, if someone finds this he couldn’t play it off; no, this was bad. Get rid of it, remove, erase, redact-_

That’s it! Redact, just like how there were pages redacted on Tim’s medical files. ~~_‘Why are you thinking of that now? It’s not the time! Erase it, erase it, redact-’_~~ Jay stood up and practically sprinted into his room. He grabbed the first black sharpie he could find and hurried back into his living room. Within seconds, lines of black covered up the bottom of the page. Once everything at the bottom was marked out, he sat down and let out a breath he didn’t realize he had been holding. He leaned back against the couch and closed his eyes, hoping to get his heart rate back down to a normal level. Sadly, his poor heart couldn't catch a break. His heart felt like it stopped when he felt something large and weighted being pressed into his back.

And he knew it wasn’t the couch.

Jay jumped up right as the thing against his back pushed against the back of the couch. He quickly turned around to try seeing what he had laid against, but to his confusion there was nothing there. For a moment he was worried he imagined it, until he felt something move. Freezing, Jay turned his head to the side to try getting a look at what was on his back. When he did, he couldn’t tell if he regretted it or not.

‘Are those- are those bird wings?!’

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Going to try updating every month or two!  
> Ideas/prompts Tumblr (ideas for future stories/au ideas/headcannons) - @marble-hornets-fic-prompts  
> Ao3 Tumblr (updates, answer questions, etc.) - @foxfire-and-midnight-wings
> 
> Also, I'm looking for one or two more beta readers. If you're interested let me know on my Tumblr!
> 
> Hope you enjoyed!
> 
> \---
> 
> 14 5 24 20 0 3 8 1 16 20 5 18:  
> 16 1 14 9 3 0 1 20 20 1 3 11 0 20 23 15, 0 5 12 5 3 20 18 9 3 0 2 15 15 7 12 1 12 15 15


End file.
